Miami Marlins Manager Apologizes For Saying He ‘Loves’ Fidel Castro

during Opening Day at Marlins Park on April 4, 2012 in Miami, Florida.Manager Ozzie Guillen of the Miami Marlins waves during Opening Day against the St. Louis Cardinals at Marlins Park on April 4, 2012 in Miami, Fla. (credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

CINCINNATI (CBS Tampa/AP) — It didn’t take long for Ozzie Guillen’s mouth to get him in trouble this season.

The Miami Marlins manager apologized on Saturday for telling a magazine that he loves Fidel Castro, a comment that prompted to team to issue a statement denouncing the Cuban dictator.

Guillen told Time magazine that he loves Castro and respects him for staying in power so long. When Guillen read his comments Friday, he said he felt sick because he knew how people would react.

Guillen called the team’s beat writers for a closed-door meeting before a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night and apologized.

“I will apologize if I hurt somebody’s feelings, or I hurt somebody’s thought,” Guillen told the writers. “I want them to know I’m against everything 100 percent — I repeat it again — the way this man (been) treating people for the last 60 years.

“The reason I say I admire him is because a lot of people want to get rid of this guy and they couldn’t yet,” Guillen told the Sun-Sentinel. “That was personal, not politics. If you don’t read the article, it sounds ugly. The first time I read it I was like, ‘Wow, that’s going to get me in trouble.’ I understand that. I’m not hiding from anybody, especially people in Miami.”

In response to the magazine story, the Marlins released a statement saying, “There is nothing to respect about Fidel Castro.

“He is a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years. We live in a community filled with victims of this dictatorship, and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today.”

It’s not the first time Guillen, from Venezuela, has made a strong comment about a controversial leader. During his first news conference as Marlins manager in September, he bristled at a suggestion he supports Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“Don’t tell my wife that, because she hates that man. She hates him to death,” Guillen said. “I supported Chavez? If I was supporting Chavez, do you think I would be manager of the Marlins? I never supported Chavez.”

Guillen said he has never spoken to Chavez, but in fact he appeared on the Venezuelan leader’s national radio show twice in October 2005, when Guillen led the Chicago White Sox to the World Series title. At the time, Guillen said: “Not too many people like the president. I do. My mom will kill me, but it’s an honor to talk to the president.”

Guillen became a U.S. citizen in 2006, and he has been more critical of Chavez in recent years.

“It’s not my fault Chavez is the president,” Guillen said. “I didn’t put him there. … We got what we deserved.”

That’s a pretty good deal…21 days of free food a month, almost as good a deal as Amerika where if you just work part time, you get a full month’s of food. A couple gets over $300 per month in free food here, that’s why so many are so fat. Those Cubans have the right idea to keep the obesity rate down!

What do you expect from Ossie, he comes from Chicago where Castro is chic, with a bunch of rich, mansion living, limo riding people who fancy themselves to be communists.

The home of Bill Ayers who was the son of a rich CEO of a utility co. Talk about a tough school of hard knocks upbringing!
Or the Barrack Obama son of a Bank President, who went to school at ever expensive private school from Hawaii, to Occidental College, to Columbia, to Harvard, talk about another tough life of hard knocks that would drive someone to communism.

Sure Tim, he can say anything he wants. But since he is working for a team in an area of the country where a very large number of people and/or their parents and/or their grandparents risked their lives to get out of Castro’s island prison, he shouldn’t be surprised if he catches a lot of flack. And when your idiot statements have the potential to negatively effect the bottom line, don’t expect management to look to kindly on your stupidity, 1st Amendment or not!

No one told him to get out. Neither does free speech guarantee that you will be exempt from criticism, nor that other may not exercise their freedoms, which include the freedom to tell you that you are an idiot, and the freedom not to patronize any business that you are associated with. Guillen can continue to say stupid things all he wants. No one is stopping him.

Some of you need to go back and read the 1st amendment to the Constitution. The right to free speech safeguards us against impediments put in place by Congress. It doesn’t give any one the right to have their speech heard, or to have their speech respected, or to have their speech even tolerated, by other citizens.

No, you flaming imbecile. What part of DICTATORSHIP do you NOT understand? Will you freaking tell me the last time Castro held FREE ELECTIONS?? TELL ME!!! The fact that this idiot manager would even THINK to utter ONE STINKING word of respect for this tyrant pig is absolutely atrocious! And I don’t believe he’s sorry FOR ONE MINUTE! He holds SOME kind of weird respect for a KNOWN MURDERER!!! He should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY!

I think Fidel Castro is a misery-inflicting communist d0uch3bag whose own daughter castigates him with much justification, but I am SICK AND TIRED of all the fake and forced “apologizing.”

If Guillen wants to tell the world how he “admires” Castro — or Karl Marx or Chairman Mao, for that matter — then that’s his idiotic prerogative. He’s not running for president or vying for a cabinet position. He said it, the apology is HOLLOW. It proves he’s an idiot about politics and world affairs. But his business is BASEBALL. Muy muy baseball. El grande baseball.

There’s something seriously, mentally wrong with Ozzie Guillen. I can’t say if he ate too much leaded paint off the crib rails as a child or if his parents were siblings, but something went very, awfully wrong in his would-be development into a mentally whole adult.

You see clearly. Sadly, too many posting comments are brainwashed fools. Their opinions were provided to them in a neat little box called TV or radio. They are stuck in a paradigm they may never escape from.

Thats the way to show how we are the land of the free…. where freedom of speech, and the press, and religious belief trumps all…. unless of course you say something that offends right wing tea baggers…. then your automatically a commie and need to leave the country….

Tim, it seems to be you that has the most trouble with people who have opinions different than yours. The posters here are stating their preference that Coach Ozzie move to a political climate more akin to his own, nobody here is threatening him. Grow up Timmy and realize that not only do most Americans despise a tyrant but especially citizens of Miami where many have suffered at the hands of Fidel personally.

When will these knuckle headed celebrities understand that they should keep their opinions to themselves? If Ozzie Guillen hadn’t been able to hit a baseball he would’ve been pumping gasoline in Venezuela for the last 30 years…he should be DAMN grateful to the United States of America, and he should shut his mouth about EVERYTHING EXCEPT for baseball.

AMS, are you really so stupid that you don’t know that freedom of speech means that the GOVERNMENT cannot sensor your speech? But if someone is in a position that they are representing a business, that they CAN be fired? At a minimum, Ozzie should be suspended, because he has CERTAINLY made the Marlins organization and MLB look like fools. Selig won’t do anything, but Ozzie better be DAMN glad that he isn’t a coach in the NFL, or that he isn’t in the military, and pointed out that Obama is an idiot…

Guillen, your admiration for vicious totalitarians sickens anyone who values human rights. You have shamed your team, family and yourself. We sincerely hope you are shunned and return to your sadly, now Communist country.

What do you expect from an admiited alchoholic—earlier in the week he came out and said for 24 years he has gotten drunk in the hotel bar after every road game, and then gone to sleep. 24 years of getting drunk like clockwork. His mind is saturated with booze, bad thought, and he has a foul and ugly mouth when he speaks. Unbelievealbe he shows no sympathy to even the population of Miami and South Florida—whom everyone knows has a large populace of Cuban Americans.

Management would be wise to understand “their first loss is their best loss” with this mental midget. Send him packing, even if you have to pay the man…He will bring nothing but bad publicity to your team, your fans, and your city.

Well said, I thought I would be not go to games because of the distance from my
Home but between that opening night disgrace and this dumb statement I will not
support the owner or the midget manger!!!!!!!

A brand new stadium built in the middle of a community that is all Cuban immigrants. Another democrat in a state of blissful ignorance. The problem with commy light people like Ozzie and the Chavez and Fidel loving crowd in Hollywood is that they have no idea what’s it like to live under tyranny. Say something the government disagrees with and you are gone in the middle of the night. Those are nations of have nots thanks to the tyrants that have lead them into the ground. To think that people here are dabbling in marxism is astounding.
China has quickly learned it does not work and has been turning around. The greatest accomplishments about socialism/marxism/communism is that it equalizes all its citizens into one state; poverty. There, all are equally and wretchedly poor and miserable.. Message to the hollywood crown and rich folks: that includes you too.
Vote correclty in November if you don’t want to send your country into oviblion.

The difference is the American people have in their very identity the idea they are free. We have not fallen into full fledged tyranny until the people lose this. You, to be brutally honest, seem like you have.

Don’t take it personally if the shoe doesn’t fit. It’s just that people are putting up resistance to tyranny when the say “Heh! this is America! Not here in the Land of the Free!”
It doesn’t necessary represent a factual reality, but the spirit that sentiment carries is real and powerful even in these times.

America is still a good country. We just need to erase the Marxist stain that is Obama from high office. Time was when avowed Marxists like him would be unable to find a decent job for their sedition. We need to get back to that.

Yeah and we have to erase the War Monger Tourturer stain from the Bush years which got 5,000 Americans killed, 100,000 Iraqi Civilians killed, put a $1 Trillion Dollar hole in our Treasury and left us with nothing to show for it.

brutally honest? you need to fix your perspective! stop hating America first. No Americans flee the US government to ride on a raft for 90 miles through shark infested waters for freedom. They say follow the money. I say follow the people, they are fleeing Cuba and coming here for a reason, NOT the other way around. If you don’t like America, you don’t have to stay

“I will apologize if I hurt somebody’s feelings, or I hurt somebody’s thought,” Guillen told the writers. “I want them to know I’m against everything 100 percent — I repeat it again — the way this man (been) treating people for the last 60 years.”

There is always one man-child that needs to say “OH WHAT ABOUT AMERICA…” and idiotic statements in the form of a question like “Who’s the REAL terrorists?” Such boring uneducated people that believe conspiracy blogs because they are too simple minded to read a book that wasn’t written by some radio personality.

Wise management would not have made him a multi-millionaire by signing his sorry butt to the big money deal they gave him. Everyone in Chicago knows that Ozzie can’t manage a lick and just loves to hear himself talk. He is much better suited for The View than managing a baseball team. This is a really bad reflexion on Marlins management. The Marlins are doomed.

Hey Ozzie:
What? This gomba Ozzie, knew how it would look to people after HE read his own words in the newspaper. How did he expect his own admiration for a social-psychopath like that sick commie SOB to look like in print? Jeez! Is Ozzie a moron, or what? Just asking. Hey Ozzie, stop smoking crack and STFU ! Ozzie is a true cabrone. Hey Marlins, show that your clowns aren’t just fried fish and fire Ozzie Guillen! He doesn’t deserve the privilage and he brings discredit and ridicule on the Marlins organization.

It just goes to show how far baseball has deteriated. It is full of a bunch of sickos and players so full of steroids and other drugs is in no longer worth watching. It is a shame I used to love baseball.

The guy is the manager of a baseball team, for goodness sake. Cut him some slack. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez are both big supporters of baseball, whatever else they are. It is human nature to see people like that in the context of your life. What you see depends on where you stand. My guess is that Ozzie Guillen doesn’t think a whole lot about much outside baseball.

Obviously this man is no Yogi Berra or Casey Stengel! He lacks their basic common sense and their love and respect for America and its institutions. At the same time, he would certainly fit in with the smug imbeciles who serve as commissars in the Obama Administration. He could also be an ideal left wing stooge indoctrinating students in the modern university environment. Most certainly there would be great joy in Mudville to see Guillen strike out completely at anything he does.

Ozzie can say and believe what he likes. He is an over-rated manager and has the political insight of a moron. That is the great thing about free speech it offers protection for the intelligent as well as the ignorant

Ozzie is a blowhard and a horrible manager.and person to boot. Typical loser liberal-he signs a multi-million dollar deal and then reveals his admiration for the murdering man of the people Castro. He is also a big fan of Chavez. The Marlins will rue the day that they brought this clown show into town.

Ozzie Guillen is not telling the truth. Just like fellow countryman Chavez who loves Fidel Castro. He should resign is shame for his support of the brutal dictorship Castro represented. Ozzie is now a liar now and will tell you whatever you want to hear now just like every other socialist when confronted.

I’m confused. The Mainstream media ( CBS included) have long employed anchors and newspeople who fawn over Caastro and his WONDERFUL health care system ( Which buned the guts of his #1 friend from Venezuela) Why can the media love Castro and Ozzie Guillen cannot?

REPEAT AFTER ME! Ozzie Guillen is a JERK! Always has been, always will be. He is an embarrassment to baseball and makes Latinos look bad. He should be managing in the Minor Leagues If a Team Owner want’s headlines, there are better ways to get them than hiring this Nut Case.

Dear Tim, Yes, he has a right to say whatever he wants, and live by the consequences. Freedom of speech works both ways. Just like liberal fools like you attacked Rush, we can also stop going to Marlin games while this idiot is the manager.

“The reason I say I admire him is because a lot of people want to get rid of this guy and they couldn’t yet,”
Ozzie must love the hell out of cancer. It’s been killing millions of people and we’ve been try to get rid of it forever.

Guillen needs to be fired RIGHT NOW to make a statement to the Cuban community. He LIED about his association with CHAVEZ, and he is likeling lying about his motives in this instance. He will not be taking the Miami Marlins to any post-seasons in the near future, and he just cost the team millions of dollars in support.

He is not upset over the fact he said it. He is upset that he got caught saying he likes Castro. As he stated he likes Chavez. He is not proud of his Socialist’s heritage enough to repeat it when caught on tape. He should LOVE the Communist Dictator Obama though

I don’t love him, but he’s no worse than his sourgrapes expatriates goldbricking in this country. And he’s no worse than any of the craven and murderous, Progressive Presidents plaguing US for the past 100 yrs.
Just a thought. I guess he’s ineligible for Prez, but he could be a Senador.

Why doesn’t Ozzie apply to manage the Cuban National Team? I think I’m correct – Castro mandated there could be no professional baseball in Cuba. Ozzie you are a a-hole. Let’s hope the Phillies crush the Marlin’s this year and Jose Contreras strikes-out every Marlin he faces. And thanks–that greatly beloved Philly Tony Taylor left Cuba before Castro could nationalize baseball, his chosen profession. He was a joy to watch and Philadephia Phillies fans love him to this day. He is still one of the most popular Phillies ever. Thank you Castro – your lose is our gain.

this reminds me of when Bill Maher said he felt the 9/11 hijackers acted couragesly. Hey, people who love to hear themselves talk, like Ozzie, Maher, Limbaugh and obama, just cant help but say stupid things without thinking of the consequences. Because they love to hear themselves talk. And it’s all about them, not the situation at hand.
at least of all those, ozzie is just the manager of a baseball team- he holds no real power.

Ozzie, if you love Castro and his Commie ways so much why didn’t you play baseball for him all these years? Could it have been all the money you’ve gotten in this evil, Capitalist country. Guys like you always love Communism for everyone but themselves.

Castro is no worse than any of our presidents. As a matter of fact he is actually better than all of them. He didn’t kill the millions our representatives have, based on lies. You don’t even know the history of Cuba. Do you think Batiste was a good guy? Castro has been in power for so long because he is respected by his people. Batiste was turning Cuba over to international bankers. I guess you think he is a communist. You are ignorant; as indicated by your inability to disengage the CAPS LOCK. ~SMIRK~

“respected by his people” – you freaking liying idiot. The Cuban peiople are enslaved. The GDP of Cuba was bigger and greater weallth per capita when Batista was in power. You are the ignorant one. You are an idiot.

You must be living in France. Having been stationed there, and talking with a lot of the Cubans that worked at GTMO, castro is just another joe stalin, or Mao, etc.,, He did murder a lot of people, and the Russians helped him do it. Batista was a bad guy, but not as bad as Castro. Communisim doesn’t work. Cuba could be a very wealthy plce, but the castro brothers won’t allow it.

I can tell most of the comments come from sports loving idiots. You should all shut yer cake holes because it is you who are destroying a once great country like America. You are all TV addicted fools. You won’t look up from your sheep/pig feeder until all the food is gone. You people calling for the firing of someone who expresses an opinion, an asked for opinion I might add, are not real Americans. You are traitors to the ideals that men have fought and died for. In my America an opinion is sacred. My America is a constitutional Republic. Your America is a democracy. I see the same people railing against B.O…. Why? He likes democracy just like you. Infinitus est numerous stultorum!

Indeed. Venezuela would love to see South Florida hit with a dirty bomb. The red shirted chavistas would dance and party to Cup of life ole ole ole, kill the gringos, its time to play. Venezuela is our biggest enemy in the americas

Florida Marlins ??? Miami Marlins… Who really cares… Ozzie is a loud mouth.. he will be there a few years, they will lose, he will rant and he will be fired and will be recycled to another team… Baseball is almost dead… who cares!!!

Castro is a brutal and murderous dictator with the blood of countless victims on his hands. He has oppressed thousands. He has murdered his opponents. He has ruined the life potential of millions so that he could live a rarified and privileged life nourished by the blood of his victims.

Marlins should fire this worthless POS NOW. He and his insane pitcher are both venezulian communist idiots. He comes here, makes a fortune and stabs us in the back. That this bum and zambrano can make millions makes me sick.

Ozzie is a racist ingrate, I’ve watched several interviews he’s done with Spanish language stations, he openly expresses his disdain for the United States, states his racist views on white players as inferior and his dislike for American culture, etc..etc…wish an American newspaper would translate those interviews and report on them.

And uh, just WHERE are these “murdering leaders”, Mr. Einstein? I’ll bet MONEY you’re with those worthless white trash OWS punks, huh? Squattin’ this summer on daddy’s dime, are ya? Just how DO you people camp out for MONTHS at a time without working??? AMAZING! Swine.

“He is a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years.
yet obama wants to make nice with him…where’s the outrage? this managers words have little weight other than to get people angry, but our presidents words form our nations policy and all of the power of the united states behind it. wake the hell up to the real world!

Any apology that includes “if I” in it is not real. His apology should be real or he should continue to be denounced. He not only was wrong to admire a low life like Castro but to do it while managing a team in the city with the largest Cuban-American population is just plain stupid.

It’s been nearly forty three years; the Cold War has ended; we have diplomatic relationships with Russia, China, not to mention Vietnam, but still we cling to this ridiculous embargo against the tiny island of Cuba. It’s time our foreign policy caught up with the twenty first century, in this regard.

Yeah, brilliant, Albert. How about when that porker has FREE ELECTIONS?? HUH?? If we gave this pig aid, he would simply tell them it was from him, NOT from the USA, and you know it. We should’ve successfully ENDED this subhuman bucket of filth 40 years ago. Can’t be THAT hard.

Remember what south american country did not condemn the attacks on 9/11. There was only one– the one that begins with a “V”. The same country that provides hezbollah training bases on Margarita Island. the same country that roughs up its jewish population, forcing them to flee to friendly Colombia. The same country that gives FARC terrorist next door in Colombia, millions of dollars in aid and arms.The same people who made fun of and mocked americans and others leaping from the WTC on 9/11, remember that you people in South Florida when you have to deal with Venezuelans in your everyday lives. they are animals.

That’s what happens when your franchise is owned by an effiminate NY art dealer, not a baseball man. Also his parading of a very ill Muhammed Ali was sad and vile. I wonder if Jeffrey Loria also hates americans? I wonder if he supports Chavez and castro? Chances are he does- he is a NY art dealer- hard core lefty

Get ready Miami, this is only the beginning of Ozzie’s verbosity. He blurts first and often and thinks, sometimes, later. I loved watching him play short and managing in 2005. But his humor and even childish ways wore thin at the end. And, a friend of mine who knows a lot more about the game both as a center fielder and manager, always did claim he was the worst manager the White Sox ever had.

oh ozzie you big lovable fuzzball you always put your foot in your mouth! but this is america you can say whatever you want you harmless brown piece of crust!! may the cubans in miami put you on a raft an sail you to cuba you cute mustached fecal remnant!!

This is why just a few years after winning a World Series Chicago finally launched that racist South American Castrohumping scuzzzz. He’s been in America for 40 years and he still can’t speak English. Typical scuuzzz whom without pro sports would be cutting sugar cane all day and night.

“He is a brutal dictator who has caused unthinkable pain for more than 50 years. We live in a community filled with victims of this dictatorship, and the people in Cuba continue to suffer today.”

Yet, if you visit a college campus or a Michael Moore movie screening or a Occupy Something camp or a Democratic National Convention, those interviewed won’t be saying such negative things about Cuba or Castro. Why is that? Who’s right?

Denouncing Cuba is a cheap and meaningless act…which of course is why the Marlins did it. What should be done (and what would please the fans not just of the Marlins but the fans of freedom) is to immediately fire Ozzie so he can personally express his love for Fidel while managing a team in Cuba. Just think how much more Guillen could love Castro if he actually knew first-hand what he was talking about instead of spouting the equivalent of a Che tee-shirt.

Ozzie must be drinking again. Way to go this will help attendence, enrage the entire cuban population of the greayer Miami area who have lost thousands of relatives tortured and murdered by Castro by saying he admires and loves the guy lol.

Ozzie is like Charles Barkley, the media loves both just for the outrageous comments they make, neither has the IQ to carry on a decent discussion, Ozzie be working for ESPN or TNT after his baseball career.

Some of us who remember when Castro seized power in Cuba also recall that he had his own people massacred in doing so. That’s forever. Time doesn’t alter the fact. The newspaper pics at the time were horrific. To say that you love and respect Castro is like saying the same thing about Stalin or Hitler – or have you all forgotten that history, too? I’d like to hear from people affected by Castro, whose family members he murdered, tell us how they feel about Guillen’s remark. I have no respect for Guillen and no respect for MLB if this guy hangs around much longer.

Egads what a drooling idiot. Should be really good for business in MIAMI(!). Maybe after he gets fired for costing the team’s gate a million fans this year, he can become manager of the Braves and tell the locals how great General Sherman was, and then after getting fired from there, become the Mets’ manager and thank al Qaeda for helping clean up lower Manhattan’s cluttered skyline.

Sounds like Guillen is your typical hyprocrial Democrat. He tries to have it both ways.
If he was really sorry he would get on the public address system before every Marlin home game and retract his support for Castro.
Just another Democrat that as no values.

Guillen’s comment was similar to one I made to my parents (Jewish) when I was a kid, that Hitler was a “great” man. They were rightly horrified at my use of the word “great,” but I meant it in the Time “person of the year award” sense – not as a matter of praise. The right way to say it was that Hitler was an impactful man, of which there is no denying. This, of course, is what’s wrong with Time’s award – it’s a use of language that is not common parlance. Most people mean “admirable” when they call someone “great.” They don’t mean it to be a synonym with “impactful.” Admiration for something good ought to be harder to achieve than the ability to bring down a hammer and shatter the expensive crystal that is brought out for special guests.

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Cuban Americans were politically useful during the Cold War and got special treatment compared with most other immigrants. Those days are done, yet their sense of entitlement knows no end. Listen, even a second generation or third generation Cuban American, born in the US, never having set foot in Cuba knows but one passtime… Hating Castro. It is their be all and end all and their only reason to exist. They and us might all be better served if they were to take their hatred and anger back to Cuba and see if they can’t achieve the thing they so loudly profess to want. Sadly, this will impact the local baseball team and market. In the big scheme of things however Cuban Americans don’t have the numbers or influence to matter much nationally… Don’t treat them as more important than they are. If you want to pander to a latin immigrant group, befriend Mexican Americans… much more peaceful, entrepeneurial not entitlement minded and making up 2/3 of the Latin immigrant population of the US… A whole lot more baseball tickets to sell there than in Little Havana.

Two things to remember about the Miami Cuban American population… 1. Their sole reason to exist is to hate Castro, and for hating Castro on your behalf, you owe them. And 2. Just as soon as you don’t agree with and support them 100%, they will turn on your viciously and venomously… remember “Tu no eres Cubano!!”

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